Beginning half reflection

For the beginning half of this Japanese Class, I was able to understand all of the grammar pretty well. I struggled a little bit with A 時 B, but I was able to study well enough to understand it.
I was also able to know which verb form to use for what piece of grammar (te form, short form, etc.) In order to do this, I focused more on examples rather than brute force memorization. I think it really helped to make the language feel a little more natural.
For the latter half of the class, I intend to keep this up in regards to grammar. However, I need to put much more focus on memorizing vocabulary and (especially) kanji. Kanji has always been very hard for me, but I will still try to do my best. However, there is no excuse for not being able to memorize vocab. I simply need to put in more time to studying these things specifically than before.

Interview sentences

おちこんだ時、じぇメスさんはさけを飲みます。
おちこんだ時、ジャクさんはねます。
おちこんだ時、エスリンさんはおいし食べ物を食べます。

Reflection of When Movie

I just finished watching the movie about "when" in Japanese.
The video makes sense, and I think that I understand how the grammar works. The video helped me understand the reasoning behind why the grammar is the way that it is, which is something I did not understand in class.
However, for practical writing and speaking purposes, I have a different way of knowing which to use. Just based on intuition, the grammar seems backwards of what I would expect. So, to me, I know that when I need to say that something happened BEFORE something else, I would think to use past tense, but I need to do the opposite. Therefore, I use the PRESENT tense. The opposite is true as well.
But it is helpful to know and understand why the grammar is this way, which the video explained well. That helps clarify which to use and when.

Blog #13 (Final entry for Fall semester)

Hello!

So this is the final reflection for the fall 2014 semester Japanese class.
I think I did okay in this class. I did all of the homework and assignments, but I feel like I could have done better on the quizzes and exams than I did. I also missed a couple of classes that I probably shouldn't have, but in the end I think I did pretty good.
Without a doubt, the part of the class I struggled the most with was the Kanji. I expected this from the beginning, since Kanji is the most challenging part of Japanese for me.
If I were to redo the semester, I would want to study a little bit each day. This semester, I studied for longer periods of time on certain days, which I think added to my level of stress and hurt my retention of the material. I think if I were to practice a little bit each day I would learn more efficiently and effectively.

Now I need to do well on the exam, and hopefully my grade in the class will be good. I intend to review over the winter break so that I am prepared for the spring semester, when I take intermediate Japanese 2.

Blog #12

This week we learned different ways to say give/receive. There are two different verbs that mean to give as well as one verb that means to receive. The most difficult part about this is being able to keep the giver and the recipient in the right spot in the sentence, but, like all other things with Japanese, this can be solved with some practice.

In addition to that, we have a vocab/kanji quiz on Thursday. The vocabulary I am not worried about, but the kanji makes me very nervous. But with some review I should be okay.

In order to study for the quiz though, I am resisting the urge to go to gamestop to pick up a video game I have pre-ordered, but that is completely unrelated to Japanese.

Anyway, below I have included the examples of the verbs we learned about last class:



クリスマスに私はサイコロほしです 。
１．クリスマスに友だちがサイコロを私にあげるかもしれません。
２．クリスマスに私はサイコロを友だちにもらうかもしれません。
３．クリスマスに友だちがサイコロを私にくれるかもしれません。

Blog #11

This week we learned how to say what we want in Japanese. This is convenient since Christmas is coming up, and I am sure that the holidays will be a prominent topic of conversation in our Japanese class.

I think my biggest challenge in this class is becoming remembering and mixing all of the different grammar nuances that we are learning. Individually they make sense, but it can be a little confusing to use several different ones in the same sentence, especially with conjugation. I will look at example sentences, probably from the textbook, to help me get an idea of how to handle these combinations.

Besides what's going on in the class, I went to the Akron Comic con. While I was there, I ran into someone who was teaching themselves Japanese, and we talked a little in Japanese.

① What does your mother want for her birthday?

 母はセーターがほしです。

 

②子どもの時、何が一番(いちばん)ほしかったですか。

 子供のとき、プレイステーションがほしかったです。

 

③時間とお金と、どちらがほしいですか。なぜですか。Use Aので、B。

 かいものおすきので、お金がほしいです。

Blog #10

This week we learned how to describe how something looks or doesn't look. This same grammar is used to say that "I guess I can do X" or similar sentences. Below I have included pictures and example sentences to show the grammar.
This week we also practiced for the kanji quiz that would happen next week. Memorizing Kanji is, by far, the most difficult part of Japanese for me. I intend to try my best on this quiz not only because i need a good grade, but the stronger I become with this lesson's kanji the quicker I become at writing in Japanese.
To prepare for the quiz I am going to practice writing each kanji as well as make sure I understand the sentence structures that were on the practice exam.


このステキはおいしそうです。

これは高いそうなとけいです。